Doug's List Of The 50 Best Songs Under Two Minutes

Sometimes less is more right? I thought this could be interesting and indeed I had fun with it as I do compiling any music list. I originally came up with 104 songs in my iTunes to consider, but I really wanted to make this list about fully realized songs - or at least as fully realized as a song under two minutes can be. So no instrumentals, no interludes, and if a song was part of a medley or a longer piece I made a judgement call on whether it still could stand on its own and fit on this list. I also tried to stick to originals. There aren’t that many. Keep in mind there are plenty of bands that never recorded a song under 2 minutes long, and others who recorded at least a dozen or more - more factors I had to balance as I cut a couple from Nirvana, The Beatles and The White Stripes for example. So with that said here they are ranked from longest to shortest, song title, artist, album and year!

I’ve also included a link to the playlist in Apple Music for you! You can listen to the entire thing in less than an hour and a half…

1. Pull This Blanket Off - The Raconteurs Consolers of The Lonely 2008

2. Let’s Build A Home - The White Stripes De Stijl 2000

3. New York City - The Jesus and Mary Chain Hate Rock N’ Roll 1995

4. Yes - Morphine Yes 1995

5. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window - The Beatles Abbey Road 1969

6. Saw Red - Sublime Robbin’ In The Hood 1994

7. One Foot Out The Door - Van Halen Fair Warning 1981

8. Drop - The Jesus and Mary Chain Automatic 1989

9. Hell - Foo Fighters In Your Honor 2005

10. From Me To You - The Beatles released as a single 1963

11. Down The Drain - The Jazz Butcher Sex and Travel 1985

12. Do You Want To Know A Secret - The Beatles Please Please Me 1963

13. China - Steve Kilbey Dabble 2002

14. Very Ape - Nirvana In Utero 1993

15. Medication - Queens Of The Stone Age Lullabies To Paralyze 2005

16. Jumble, Jumble - The White Stripes De Stijl 2000

17. Words Of Love - Buddy Holly released as a single 1957

18. Biotech Is Godzilla - Sepultura Chaos A.D. 1993

19. Torture - The Replacements All Shook Down 1990

20. I’ll Follow The Sun - The Beatles Beatles For Sale 1964

21. Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want - The Smiths Hatful Of Hollow 1984

22. Sex. Murder. Art. - Slayer Divine Intervention 1994

23. Rave On - Buddy Holly released as a single 1958

24. You’re Pretty Good Looking For A Girl - The White Stripes De Stijl 2000

25. Ain’t No Telling - The Jimi Hendrix Experience Axis: Bold As Love 1967

26. Secret Corners - The Church The Blurred Crusade 1982

27. Your Unpleasant Family - Porcupine Tree The Incident 2009

28. Marz - Prince & 3RDEYEGIRL PLECTRUMELECTRUM 2014

29. Think I’m Gonna Feel Better - Swervedriver released as a single 2019

30. (She’s So) Out Of Touch - The Mighty Lemon Drops Ricochet 1992

31. Do You Wanna See Me Crying? - King Princess Cheap Queen 2019

32. Downer - Nirvana Bleach 1989

33. Good Morning Girl - Journey Departure 1980

34. Quick And To The Pointless - Queens Of The Stone Age R 2000

35. Taste Of Cindy - The Jesus and Mary Chain Psychocandy 1985

36. Necrophobic - Slayer Reign In Blood 1986

37. Hello There - Cheap Trick In Color 1977

38. Sweet Sweet - Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream 1993

39. Tourette’s - Nirvana In Utero 1993

40. Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue - The Ramones The Ramones 1976

41. Kickstand - Soundgarden Superunknown 1994

42. The Perfect Crime - The Jesus and Mary Chain Hate Rock N’ Roll 1995

43. Sister - Prince Dirty Mind 1980

44. Judy Is A Punk - The Ramones The Ramones 1976

45. New Thrash - Sublime 40 Oz. To Freedom 1992

46. Pigs On The Wing (Part One OR Part Two) - Pink Floyd Animals 1977

47. Pool Shark - Sublime Robbin’ In The Hood 1994

48. Paddle Out - Sublime Sublime 1996

49. Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon - Queen A Night At The Opera 1975

50. Lukin - Pearl Jam No Code 1996

51. Yeah - Kyuss Blues For The Red Sun 1992 *Honorable Mention - it’s literally not a song but just the spoken word “Yeah” at the end of the album and listed as a track called Yeah. Genius.

So there you have it! I notice that punk or punk influence is a factor here… even the Prince tunes are fast and have a little of that punk attitude. I don’t listen to a ton of pure punk but just as an example, I don’t listen to the Misfits - Glenn Danzig’s first band and punk pioneers. I love the first few Danzig band albums which were more standard metal. I looked it up out of curiosity and 9 of the 13 songs on the first full length Misfits album are under 2 minutes. The first 3 Danzig albums have a grand total of 7 songs under FOUR minutes and none under 3. 5 of 15 on the first Black Flag album which I also don’t listen to are under 2, and plenty of Ramones tunes to pick from which I do listen to. Early pop / rock songs from artists like Buddy Holly from the late 50’s and The Beatles in the 60’s tend to be short, but The Rolling Stones? The Temptations? Bob Dylan? Nothing to speak of under two minutes from their mid-60’s output…

So did I miss any that you love? Put them in the comments and I’ll give them a listen - heck I can spare less than two minutes right?

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M10 Social is owned by Doug Cohen in West Bloomfield, MI and provides social media training and digital marketing services from the Frameable Faces Photography studio Doug owns with his wife Ally.  He can be reached there at tel:248-790-7317, by mobile at tel:248-346-4121 or via email at mailto:doug@frameablefaces.com.   

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